The Red Hourglass
by Max Cio
Summary: The Kane's can't always do the work. So that's when other heroes step in. Watch as they fight through ancient monsters, battle old deities...and more. OC's, but I promise they're not Mary Sue's. R&R. Based on a RP.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

If you happened to be outside Memphis University that summer night, you would see clear stars dotting the horizon, blazing brightly and as fiercely as they had ever been. The streets were silent, you could drop a feather and nobody would've noticed. The nocturnal bugs lay lazily on the grass, content on only finding the next meal for the day. Of course, there was the occasional hum of a car every now and then, but not as much as a regular night.

No one noticed that all, except for a worn-out and slight demented looking man looking out the window. He had a white lab coat over a disheveled looking polo shirt, and you could barely see the brown leather pants that hung bellow them. Glasses were perched over his nose, and he looked slightly out of this world. But of course, you would never tell that to his face.

He slowly turned from the view of the window to his computer, finger hovering above the keyboard. The usual help of animals were on their day off, too tired to type thousand word reports. Now what was he going to do-finish the essay on Shabti rights or submit the new law about burritos to Horus? He settled on Shabti rights.

When he was about halfway through the paper, writing a persuasive argument why shabtis needed pension, the knock of the door interrupted his chain of thought.

"What is it?" The man asked with a resigned sigh, still typing. "I'm busy."

"_Argh_!" One of the baboons yelped outside the door.

His fingers froze above the letter H. The silence seemed for eerie than usual, the slightest act of noise committed would've echoed loudly across the room. _Why would she be here? _He wondered to himself. "Let her in," he said calmly. After all, it wouldn't hurt to see what the big picture was.

The door opened. There was a brown baboon out there, looking annoyed and slightly furious. Beside him was a mousey brown haired woman, wearing a brown dress that resembled a librarian's, and dark shades covered her eyes. She had a coy expression on her face, looking like as if she had done something wrong and she knew it. Although her appearance was far different than her true personality, the man knew who she was. He could sense it from her aura, and the way she carried herself. Like a regal goddess.

The man nodded at the baboon to leave. Once the creature was away from the room, he cleared his throat. "Hello Serqet," the man said calmly. "I've seen you've collected a new host. From where, the Wal-Mart on Brook Avenue?"

"Actually, Target. The one across the street," Serqet answered, matching his tone evenly. "But we both know that's not the point, is it?"

Thoth raised an eyebrow. His color-shifting eyes seemed slightly bemused. "Okay, good to know. Now who in the blazes let _you_ in here?"

"I have my ways," Serqet said slyly. "Trying to change the subject? You know I wouldn't allow it."

"Well, if we chose it to be, yes." The man turned to face her straight in the eye, without any humor or sarcasm in them. It was time to handle the real business. "Fine. What do you want?"

Serqet purred. "Thoth," she started, obviously trying to sound convincing, "You know that Apophis is rising. But what you might not know is that this time he will be successful. He will rise to power and take the throne. Not only will all the gods and goddesses supporting the other side will be vanquished, the people on our sides will be greatly rewarded for their services. I have seen that you have remained on your own side throughout the centuries. Now is the time to choose. Would you rather be on his side and receive riches beyond what mortals can perceive, or face his-and my-wrath?"

"Well, what do those mortals say?" Thoth racked his head for an answer. "Oh, that's right-whatever." He sighed loudly. "Take your scorpions and leave, for I am far too busy to bother concentrating on more important tasks than to entertain petty requests like yours."

"What, so the law on serving tea the proper way is important?" Serqet hissed, exasperated. "Well, maybe it was useful, Bast always insisting on putting too much milk in them in every meeting was annoying, and had to be sorted out-but still! This is more important than you and your trivial matters. And I know you know too."

_Wrong move, old friend. _"Apophis will not prevail for long. You know history repeats itself more often than not, and this will have been the third time that Apophis has risen to be beaten back by Ra. Besides, me being on neither side, I am still mediating on a solution to the conflict." The words 'chaos', 'order', and 'balance' kept reappearing on Thoth's lab coat, flashing on at the time, and disappearing once more. Personally, he hated these conflicts. Hated petty squabs over power. He was one of the few in the balance, the thing kept chaos and order equal and not let either get the upper hand. He had to keep helping suppress chaos because if it won the battle of the two forces, Ma'at would break, and chaos would rule the world with no hint of order.

Serqet's eyes blazed with a sudden fire, probably because of his fashion choice and his words. "Are you sure? How do you know he will not come to power this time? Because now Thoth, we have a base. Firmer than the red pyramid could ever have been. And now the enemies of Apophis will be how he gets his real power." She stood her ground, tense and waiting for his reaction.

"Serqet, you know even if I wasn't so disinclined to take a side, I would always refuse. I keep the balance within chaos and order, I make them equal. Chaos is always in civilization, as long as there has been a world there has been chaos, so order is constantly striving to keep the scale straight. Chaos on the other hand, chaos just keeps adding up and needs to be put down, it is always trying to tip the scales. I'm one of the people who go beneath the forces Serqet, hoping that people like you won't destroy the harmony that mankind has now- although still somewhat-achieved. You're asking me to kill or seriously ruin myself. What do you think my answer is, and always will be?"

She scowled. "Fine, I admit, I knew what your answer would be. I was just giving you a chance-but now you've wasted it. Go ahead, and watch the precious world you've worked so hard to build get torn up into tiny bits. And it would be a lie for me to admit that I'll be enjoying it all, sitting right beside Apophis, gloating over the victory that the future generations will come to praise and worship me again for."

Serqet spun around, heading towards the door, when she suddenly turned back for a moment. "And be expecting Sekhment." Serqet strode out the door, slamming it.

Thoth stood there for a moment in his chair, doing nothing. "That parting remark will cause you many sleepless nights…" he muttered, although he knew that it was useless. She was probably gone right now; maybe she had teleported to the Duat. Closing his eyes for a moment and then opening them, Thoth stood up and walked to a wooden closet. He opened it.

Inside were about a thousand miniature shabtis, made so well that they could pass off as he deemed so: from a magician to a monster, switching up their personalities and looks too. He murmured a short spell, speaking so low that no one could hear it.

Then, twelve shabtis sprung to life, rising from the closet. Their eyes glowed a dull silver, and they kind of looked like zombies in a miniature way.

"Find Serqet and harass her ceaselessly," Thoth ordered, a sense of authority in his voice. "Banish her into the deepest parts of the Duat if you are able."

With those words, the shabti shifted. Their looks varied, the one in the center turned into a bald old man with a fat stomach, while the one on the left morphed into a six year old girl with blonde hair and an angelic smile, holding a lollipop. The rest turned into people of various ages and races, looking different from one another. But they had the same expression on their faces: blank and dull. Upon hearing Thoth's order, they nodded without any hint of emotion, and stepped out the closet. He had to take a footstep back to avoid them treading on his toes. Like a pack, they went towards the window, three opening it and climbing out, the rest following in swift pursuit. And then they were gone.

Once they were gone, he sank back into his chair, exhausted. The events of the night were rather peculiar actually, more different than an ordinary night. He decided to ponder upon it.

He knew that only the Chief Lector was the only one who had the power to summon Sekhment, and that was only once in his life. Either she was bluffing, or she had managed to find out a way to get the spilt-personality goddess. They were gods after all, and they could twist, kill, bribe, and do other things to get their way. But what could they do to stop her?

Sure, the Kane's were doing okay-for their age at least. Settled down, had raised several initiates, but that wasn't enough. No, they needed more people. People outside the Brooklyn territory, some who could raise different forces. Not like the ordinary magicians in the First Nome, unwilling to trust the gods and to help them restore order to the world.

Most of all, they needed balance between the two forces. A thing that was so easy to say, but so difficult to rise.

He could only shake his wizened head and continue typing, knowing the perils that would lie ahead, but unable to do anything about them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter One**

**First Nome, Egypt**

**Tessa Karnayh**

You could say that Tessa Karnayh was not in the best of moods today.

First of all, there was nothing to do today. Almost all the other magicians and the initiates were doing something, and she was just milling around the halls, the most important thing on her mind was if there was any Coke left in the kitchens. Her light brown hair hung limp on her shoulders as she turned right, dipping her head when one Amulet Maker waved absentmindedly.

Although she had to admit, looking around the giant area was pretty interesting to watch. There were people doing really random things-from practicing some of their skills in the halls to whispering the latest gossip. Tessa stopped to look at an Air Elementalist battle with a Cheese Elementalist, one of the daily events. She wasn't the type to talk with the other girls about gossip-personally, she found it useless.

"You're going down!" the Air Elementalist yelled, rolling his palms together, a small ball of wind forming in his hands.

The Cheese Elementalist rolled his eyes. "I believe you have it the other way around."

"So not true!" the Air Elementalist argued. Then, he stopped rotating his palms and shoved with a flick of his hands the air of wind. It roared, and started forming into a miniature cyclone, hissing right in front of his opponent. The wind swooped a small breeze around the hallways, but the students who passed by just gave a quick glance and continued to whatever they were doing.

"Well…" the Cheese Elementalist sighed. "If you want to…." He closed his eyes.

Tessa watched with mild interest, used to the bickering that occurred between the two every day. She didn't know their names, but she always knew who was going to win the fight. She wasn't the only one who knew that-the older initiates were a few paces behind her, and she noticed from the corner of her eye hands slipping money. It was probably the newer initiates betting with the elder ones, they never knew the surprising outcome-and the older ones benefitted from it.

Just as the cyclone was about to sweep the Cheese Elementalist in, out of nowhere, something the shade of a pale yellow and in a triangular shaped appeared in front of him. It was about the twice the size of the Cheese Elementalist. Tessa wrinkled her nose at the smell-it was _foul_. She resisted the urge to gag, and not for the first time pondered on how the other Cheese Elementalists withstood the smell each day.

The Air Elementalist's face started turning a light shade of green. To his credit though, he still managed to control the cyclone, although his hands were shaky and breath hurried as he forced the vortex of air to press forward through the cheese's defenses. The big lump refused to falter, and the Cheese Elementalist still remained his usual cool and calm self.

"No…" the Air Elementalist said weakly. "I can't lose…again."

"Just give up Ray," the Cheese Elementalist advised. "There's still training later on."

His face was stubborn. "No."

Tessa rolled her eyes. The battle was slower than usual-by now, the Air Elementalist would've surrendered with a pout. Either way, she didn't want to watch anymore. After all, she wasn't an Elementalist in the first place, but by watching them every day she learned how to defeat their kind, in case she encountered anyone with their type. And who knew-one day, she'd probably have to meet them in battle.

She began to walk away, blending perfectly into the sea of initiates. There were no classes today for her; Saturdays and Fridays were her rest days. Tessa really wanted to go to a bookstore that was a few miles away, but it was closed for renovation. So what would she do?

Just as she decided on going to the library to study, she felt something tap her shoulder. "Hey there person!" a perky and cheerful voice said.

Tessa turned back, confused. In front of her was a small yet scrawny girl, with sandy brown hair and bright green eyes, slightly tanned skin and…barefooted? She blinked. How did she tolerate her feet walking on gravel or something? On the girl's face was a big smile, looking serene yet deranged at the same time.

"Um, hi?" was all Tessa could say. She didn't even know this person, why was she talking to her?

"I'm Niverna," the girl said cheerfully. "What's yours?"

"Tessa Karnayh," she replied slowly.

Niverna frowned. "Wow, your last name's weird. I don't have a last name. Can you give me a last name?" She held up her hand. "No thanks, I remembered mine. It's Allgood!"

_This girl's really weird…_Tessa thought. "That's good," she said, forcing a smile on her face.

"All good!" Niverna giggled at her pun. "That's funny! So anyways, I was sent to find you, 'cause we have to find some people and recruit them or something like that-"

"From who?" Tessa asked suspiciously.

"The Chief Lector himself," Niverna replied, her hand slipping into her pocket. "Wait, I have something he told me to give you…"

Seconds later, her hand emerged from her yellow jacket with a crumpled piece of brown parchment, folded just like a note sent in school. "Sorry for the looks," she apologized as Tessa took the paper from her. "It was probably smashed because of the paperweight and the cookies, so there might be crumbs-"

Too late. As Tessa opened the parchment, she took a small step in surprise back as a big collection of crumbs spilled out of it, landing on her shoes and the floor. She winced. If anyone saw this, she would be slightly embarrassed-not only was she seen with a girl who was slightly crazy, but she looked like a little girl who was a messy eater. And Tessa was not the type to act like a little girl.

She sighed. "It's okay," Tessa forced her tone to sound good natured, flashing a small smile at Niverna. The girl beamed, and stuffed her hands into her pocket.

Tessa went on to reading the scroll. It was written in hieroglyphics, a language that she was good in. The black figures shone brightly in the sunlight, showing that it had been newly created. The figures were hastily brushed on though, but why? Shrugging her shoulders, she went on to reading the message. She didn't need to think of that, the writer was probably in a hurry or something far more important.

_Miss Karnayh, _the message read. _We have been alerted that you have been asking our offices for the opportunity to do something for the day. Well, there has been a small situation that we would like you and Initiate Allgood to take care of. There have been two other people with the blood of the pharos somewhere near Canada. Normally the Canadian Nome would've taken them in by now, but according to their staff they are overloaded, therefore unable to take care of any students. So they have given the current assignment to us, and we are requesting that the two of you fetch the two people and bring them safely here to the First Nome. However, to further the extent of Allgood's training, we are requesting that you will teach her to create a portal-which will be your form of transportation getting there and back. You also must not cause any damages to the surrounding, for that has been a common cause of death and injuries these days. On behalf of the entire First Nome, we wish you good luck, and have a nice day._

In the end was a messy signature that Tessa couldn't decipher, and a hieroglyphic representing the writer's name.

She sighed. Although yes, it was something to do…but did she have to do it with this deranged person? Tessa looked up to Niverna.

"Let's go," she said slowly, trying to keep her voice chipper.

**Sorry for late update, had to do some stuff! Also I know it's filler-ish, but next one'll be better, you can bet on that! Dank u well to the peeps who reviewed! Means a lot to me!**


End file.
